Regarding versioning, it seems Perl did the same trick as Mac OS, minus the marketing part. From Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, there was a total rewrite (which was originally planned for OS 8 but got delayed until NeXT saved the day). Switching from 10 to X (besides the unix/NeXT allusion) was a great way to remove focus on the major release number and shift it to the minor one.

So look at it as Perl VI, minor version 0. :)

Perl6's main strength and which makes it "fun" is that it is multi-paradigm. It supports many ways of approaching a problem, instead of forcing a particular model. So you get a toolbox instead of just a modular hammer.